Topic > The History of the Women's Suffrage Movement

On Election Day 1920, led by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, and Ida B. Wells, millions of American women exercised their right to vote for the first time. In 1848 a group of abolition activists gathered at the Women's Rights Convention in New York (which was more commonly known as the Seneca Falls Convention) to talk about women's rights issues. The Seneca Falls Convention marked the beginning of the women's rights movement. It was followed in 1850 by the first national convention of the Women's Rights Movement, held in Worcester, Massachusetts, by Lucy Stone and a group of prominent Eastern suffragettes. Most delegates agreed that women were autonomous individuals, who deserved their own political identity because they believed that men and women were equal. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In 1890 the two groups came together to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association, by which point the suffragettes' approach had changed, because now instead of saying they were the same, they said women were different from men. At that point women began to say that they could turn their family lifestyle into a political virtue and help the country. But the campaign was not always easy, the women always kept the electoral movement very peaceful. Yet, some women have been arrested just for picketing the White House fence. Once imprisoned, some women were moved to abandoned workhouses located in Occoquan, Virginia, where some suffragettes refused to eat and went on hunger strikes that usually led to very brutal force-feeding methods, and were otherwise treated poorly. very violent. . Disagreements over suffragette strategies threatened to weaken the movement more than once. It took many activists and reformers nearly a century to gain the right to vote. Starting in 1910, some Western states began to extend the vote to women for the first time in twenty years. But the Southern and Eastern states still resisted. But, not long after this achievement, World War I arrived and slowed the suffragette campaign. But at the same time, the war helped greatly by advancing their argument: due to the shortage of men, women were recruited for the jobs of the men who had gone to war. Many women became army nurses and doctors on behalf of the war, and other women created organizations also on behalf of the war. The mother raised her children very patriotically. The women soon gained a lot of respect, and the women activists proved to be just as patriotic and worthy as the men. As a result, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution (which allows states and the federal government to deny the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex, color, or race) was finally ratified, liberating all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Customize EssayThe women's suffrage movement had a profound impact on the United States of America. The Prohibition Movement has been called “The first mass women's movement in US history” and Prohibition was sparked by women getting the vote in many states before the amendment.